Michael Phelps Never Sold Weed To Get To London Olympics

John Clarke
, ContributorCovering the business of sports and the Olympics.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

(Image via AP)

Michael Phelps never had to sell weed to get to the London Olympics. But then again, Michael Phelps is no Kiwi pimp.

Logan Campbell, an Olympic taekwondo athlete from New Zealand, returned home after the Beijing Games with a $120,00 debt. He wanted to compete at the London Olympics, and that would cost him another $200,000.

He needed to train. He needed to eat.

He needed money quick. So he opened a brothel.

"I just got back from the Olympics and I had no job and nothing to do," he told the Albany Democrat Herald. "I needed to make some money if I wanted to go to the next one in London, so bam!"

Campbell announced in 2009 that he would fund his training and trip to the London Olympics by opening his own brothel, which is legal in New Zealand.

According to reports, the brothel had 14 rooms. The site promised "the finest range of intelligent ladies, the most luxurious facilities on the market" and told prospective clients to "fulfill your fantasy, bi-doubles, Greek, fantasy, dress, and much much more."

A website showed photos of Campbell in his taekwondo gear asking visitors for donations. "Or if you are in Auckland," he said on the site, "show your support by visiting the high-class escort agency I have just opened up."

Campbell said his fellow Kiwis never protested against him opening a brothel. When his mom expressed concern, he introduced her to several of the women that worked for him.

She might have been fine with it, but the New Zealand Olympic Committee was not, sending him a cease-and-desist letter threatening to sue unless he stop using prostitution to fund his Olympic campaign.

Strangely, around that same time, money to fund New Zealand's taekwondo program started coming. He advised one New Zealand company to invest more than $100,000.

"As soon as I was in the media and stuff – we had never had funding, ever, EVER in the history of taekwondo, and all of a sudden it was, like, bam! There was this funding so it was sweet," he said.